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The beginning of a new year is a traditional time for people to try to improve parts of their lives with which they're not satisfied. New year's resolutions aren't always kept, but they're a step in the right direction, and they often revolve around people determining to take better care of themselves. It's long been know that exercise cuts the risk of heart disease and a host of other physical ailments, including diabetes. Researchers are now finding that fitness has a long-term effect upon brainpower and can play a crucial role in staving off dementia.

After playing tourney host North Central to a 21-21 first half stalemate, Cheraw won the battle of the second half to win the Mid-Carolina Credit Union Basketball Classic boys' tournament played inside The Castle in Boonetown on Saturday night.

Lugoff Fire Department (LFD) personnel were able to grab Santa for a few moments to ride with them one more time this year on a fire truck as crews delivered clothes, presents and lots of food to a Lugoff family adopted by the department for Christmas.

A funeral service to celebrate the life of Thomas Carlton Taylor, 59, of Dade City, FL, will be held at 2:00 PM, Monday, December 30, 2013 at DeKalb Baptist Church in Camden, SC. Rev. Freddie Wilson will officiate. Burial will follow in the church cemetery. The family will speak with friends in the church following the service.

• Yes, we know South Carolina is a strong second-amendment state, and we're surely aware that this is an election year. But Gov. Nikki Haley's posting on Facebook of her Christmas gift, a Beretta PX4 Storm pistol, took posturing to an extreme.

Being married to my husband was never boring! During the past 30 years, he planned trips for us to England, Ireland, Scotland, Australia, France, Switzerland, Italy, Russia, Mexico, Argentina, Greece and other usual tourist spots. Each of these had many fond and not-so-fond memories. Few, however, exceeded China, where I heard a young man tell me he had seen me in Playboy Magazine and want to show me to his mother at his home; Egypt, where a policeman insisted I give him my name so, when I disappeared, my family could hear of my loss, and one man insisted on ...

Dr. L. Zimmerman Keitt will be the Martin Luther King Day speaker at Camden First United Methodist Church, 704 W. DeKalb St., in Camden, on Jan. 20 at 5 p.m. Keitt, a native of Camden and Orangeburg, is currently serving on Orangeburg's city council.

Thanks to a $10,000 donation from Blue Cross and Blue Shield (BCBS) of South Carolina, Kershaw County Adult Education (KCAE) will be able to complete upgrades to the technology it uses to offer its services.

For those of you who are faithful to this column, you will, no doubt, recall that last year I made brand new resolutions. I tossed out the old ones that I had failed at repeatedly and trudged ahead to new ones, optimistically believing that success was mine for the taking.